Could Custom LASIK Improve Your Night Vision?

At Maida Custom Vision, we have helped thousands of patients experience visual independence through custom LASIK surgery. While LASIK has always been a safe procedure with an excellent record of patient satisfaction, custom LASIK offers a multitude of benefits that its conventional counterpart simply cannot match. By using wavefront technology to create a highly detailed map of each individual eye, Dr. Jerry Maida is able to provide truly customized LASIK results to his patients, helping to ensure that they achieve the best possible results and the greatest likelihood that they will be able to see clearly without the need for their glasses or contact lenses.

One of the most common side effects associated with conventional LASIK was impaired night vision. With custom LASIK, not only is this side effect minimized, but many patients actually achieve improved night vision. During confidential consultations between prospective LASIK patients and Dr. Maida at our state-of-the-art vision correction center in Jacksonville, custom LASIK and improved night vision can be discussed in further detail. Until then, we invite you to read the following blog post to learn more about one of the many possible benefits offered by this extraordinary laser vision correction procedure.

Why Impaired Night Vision Was a Risk with Conventional LASIK

It should be noted that, as with most serious complications associated with conventional LASIK, long-term or permanent impairment of night vision was extremely rare. Since its inception, LASIK has had a very favorable safety profile. Most patients who experienced diminished night vision suffered only mild effects or suffered the effects only temporarily.

In many cases, impaired night vision was the result of residual refractive error, in which case the problem could usually be corrected with retreatment. In other cases, it resulted from an inability to treat, or the actual inducement of, higher order aberrations. Higher order aberrations are extremely small, unique flaws in the shape of the cornea. These flaws cannot be detected by traditional visual exams, nor can they be corrected by conventional eyeglasses, contact lenses, or LASIK surgery.

Why Custom LASIK May Improve Night Vision

Custom LASIK, on the other hand, can correct higher order aberrations. This is because wavefront technology is able to measure even the smallest imperfections in the shape of the cornea. The maps created by these wavefront systems are used to guide the excimer lasers used in LASIK surgery, ensuring the most precise reshaping of the cornea possible. The result is truly fine-tined vision, with correction not only of common visual errors such as farsightedness, nearsightedness, and astigmatism, but also of many higher order aberrations. As a result, patients can emerge from surgery with the sharpest, clearest vision of their lives, including at night and in other low-light situations.

While improved night vision cannot be guaranteed, and impaired night vision remains a risk even of custom LASIK surgery, the correction of higher order aberrations improves the chances of a highly favorable outcome.